Hilda Kibet (NED) wins the 2008 European XC women's race (© Mark Shearman)
Hilda Kibet won her first European title at the 15th SPAR European Cross Country Championships in Brussels today (14).
The former Kenyan, who gained Dutch citizenship little more than a year ago, took the 8km senior women’s race in convincing style. While there was another gold for the Netherlands via Susan Kuijken in the U23 junior race, Britain’s Stephanie Twell achieved a hattrick by winning the junior race once again. British teams were strong, taking two golds and one silver in these three events in Brussels’ Parc de Laeken.
SENIOR – Galkina has no answer to Kibet
Gulnara Galkina, the Olympic 3000m Steeplechase champion and the star of the women’s field in Brussels, showed up at the front in the first part of the race. But after two of the six laps the Russian began to feel the effect of running on a more unusual surface. On a demanding course with a lot of mud plus plenty of ups and downs the Steeplechase World record holder could not cope with the pace at front and fell back. Galkina finally finished 12th in 28:40 minutes and was almost a minute behind Hilda Kibet.
In the middle part of the race Portugal’s Jessica Augusto and Ireland’s Mary Cullen worked hard at front. With Kibet following, the pair the three opened a small gap. It was then the fourth of the six laps that was decisive. In the middle of this round Kibet injected some pace which immediately gave her an advantage of about ten metres. She then slightly slipped in one of the muddy bends and Augusto was able to come a couple of metres closer again. But Kibet found her rhythm again and when she entered the final lap she had an advantage of around 30 metres.
Trailing the Dutchwoman were Augusto and her fellow countrywoman Ines Monteiro, who had overtaken Cullen and went on to secure the bronze medal.
On the homestraight Kibet had the time to grab a Dutch flag. She then crossed the line in 27:45 minutes, followed by Augusto (27:54), Monteiro (28:02) and Cullen (28:04).
“I started increasing the pace with two laps to go since I did not want to end up in a sprint finish with the steeplechasers,” explained Kibet regarding her rivals from Portugal, who are both specialists at that track distance. “I am happy with this win since I could not train too much because of an operation I had in September.”
Kibet said that she would now prepare for the Egmond race in January and then go for a spring marathon.
Augusto was happy with her silver medal. “I feel that I am the winner, because I am the first European girl home”, said the Portugese and added: “But I am happy with the silver since it is my first one as a senior.”
U23 - Kuijken wins gold from Tunstall
Turkey’s Sultan Haydar surged ahead early in the race for under 23-year-olds to surprise her rivals. After the first 1500m lap of the 6km race the 21-year-old already had an advantage of seven seconds on Holland’s Susan Kuijken. And after lap two it was still the same. But then Haydar started slowing drastically, and was soon overtaken by Kuijken and afterwards by the two British runners Sarah Tunstall and Morag Maclarty.
While Haydar gave up during the third lap, 22-year-old Kuijken, who had won a bronze medal in the junior race of these championships in 2005, entered the final lap leading Tunstall by three seconds. The Dutch woman had a difficult period in the second half of lap three and it looked as if Tunstall could catch her.
“I hoped so, but I could not close the gap. Still I am pleased with the silver,” said the 22-year-old, who is an international mountain runner and led her team to victory in Brussels.
Britain dominated the team event, taking the gold with 24 points from Russia (44) and Germany (57).
“It was not an easy race, but cross country is never easy,” said Kuijken, who recovered in the final lap and built on her lead. She finally clocked 21:02 while Tunstall followed with 21:10. Yuliya Zarudneva (Russia) just managed to overtake Britain’s Morag Maclarty on the final few metres to take the bronze. Both runners were timed with 21:24. Pre-race favourite and defending champion Ancuta Bobocel (Romania) had to be content with fifth place in 21:43.
JUNIORS - Twell leads British team home to unique sweep
The 15th SPAR European Championships had begun with an amazing performance by the British junior women. After a conservative first lap defending champion and favourite Stephanie Twell took the lead in the next lap together with Charlotte Purdue. In her final junior race at international level the 19-year-old Twell then soon was on her own at front, while behind her one British girl after another lined up in a unique sweep.
Twell finished the 4 k race in 13:28, followed by all her team mates!
17-year-old Purdue, who had been third in Toro a year ago, this time took the silver with 13:39, while Lauren Howarth was third (13:55). British girls Emily Pidgeon (14:00), Emma Pallant (14:05) and Laura Park (14:08) completed the perfect team performance, which had never been seen before in any event of the SPAR European Cross Country Championships. Only once had there been a medal sweep before with the Russian junior men taking top three in 2003.
Britain took the team gold with just 10 points from Ukraine (58) and Russia (62).
“I turned around and saw all the British girls running behind me – it was just amazing,” said Purdue while for Twell there could not have been a more perfect way to leave the junior level.
“But I knew that we would have a chance to take the top six places here, because our team was very strong. We had no team tactics, but of course we spoke about the race before and all of us changed the spike nails in the morning,” explained Twell, who has achieved another unique performance in the Spar European Cross Country Championships’ history. No other junior runner has taken three gold medals in this event. “I may run the World Cross Country Championships, but we have not decided about this yet,” said Twell.
Jörg Wenig for the IAAF
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